EEE Risk Remains, But Diminishing

mosquito-12
mosquito-12

With cooler weather upon us, is southwest Michigan in the clear yet for Eastern Equine Encephalitis? The short answer is probably, but not completely. Gillian Conrad is the spokeswoman for the Berrien County Health Department and says mosquito activity is declining.

“We’re most likely moving out of it, and generally speaking, mosquito activity will start to drop off once the temperatures reach around the 50° level,” says Conrad. “We’ve certainly have had some colder days and some colder nights, and we know that mosquitoes are going to be less and less active as those temperatures continue to drop.”

There have been ten human cases of Triple-E this year in Michigan, more than in the last decade combined. Conrad says it’s far too early to tell what next year will bring. She adds until the first hard freeze of the fall, where temperatures fall below 32°, wearing long sleeves, long pants, and using insect repellent with DEET remain the best options to prevent illness from mosquito bites.